Hi!
I was hoping for help on a small dilemma.
Clark University has offered me free tuition, room, and board as a LEEP Scholar (I’d pay ~$1,500/Year)
Northeastern University has offered me free tuition as a University Scholar (I’d pay ~18,000/Year)
Some fast fun-facts:
I visited both colleges and very much preferred Northeastern and think I would have better opportunities in Boston, but would be happy going to Clark.
I plan to go to medical school
My parents can pay for Northeastern, but just barely, so I’d probably have to get a part-time job.
As I mentioned in the title, I know this is an awesome problem to have, and both colleges would be a good choice.
Any help I can have making this decision would be very helpful, so thank you for reading!
Since you plan to pursue Medical school which runs around $60K/year which would mainly student loans, I would go for the full ride especially since you stated you would be happy attending Clark.
Thanks @Gumbymom
Since you mentioned medical school, it may be worth saying that I am very interested in research and will try to get a 7-year MD/PhD. Although it is hard to predict my MCAT score and thus my ability to get into such a program, they do tend to be funded by the government (free tuition and a small stipend).
Ditto what Gumbymom said.
Additionally, consider the question of quality of life. If you go to Northeastern you and your family are going to be strapped. You’ll need a part time job. What will you have to give up? Travel abroad? Enjoying rides and nights out in Boston? Yup.
With Clark, you and your family have financial slack. It’s so important. Things happen. Translated this means you could be looking at loans if something goes wrong, like mom and/or dad loses a job, gets ill, disabled, major home system goes down, etc.
Live well within your means. Take it easy on your parents. We negotiated in a similar position with my D, and she chose the less expensive school so there would be slack so she could travel and have more flexibility. She has not looked back for an instant.
If I were you I’d go to Clark, get a part-time job, and start saving for Med School. Ask your parents to do the same. Some of that money they would have paid to Northeastern could go toward Med School.
Best of luck to you. I agree, a great problem to have.
Congrats on your two excellent choices. If you could be happy at both, go with the one where you could save some money for med school and have some breathing room while you are in school. Your family will be very pleased on graduation day when you have your medical school acceptance and are able to move on without debt following along.
It doesn’t look like debt will be a problem for you; I was going to point out that many students change their mind or don’t get into medical school, and that MD/PhD programs are competitive. But the choice is really between your parents stretching themselves to pay for Northeastern and being able to very comfortably pay for Clark.
I still vote for Clark. As others have pointed out, part-time jobs require time and sacrifices. You don’t want to be living on the precipice in Boston, where things are already really expensive. Your parents might be able to use the saved money to send you abroad one summer (since pre-med classes make it hard to go during the year) or do a low-paying internship that you really, really want.
That is a big cost difference. Northeastern and Clark are quite different in size and atmosphere. Worcester is a pretty sleepy city. The Scholars program at NU offers much more than just full tuition, including a $6000 stipend for an international experience. NU with coop opportunities and the Boston medical community can be tremendous resume builders. I am not familiar with Clark LEEP.
Try and PM ‘nanotechnology’ here on CC for an insider’s viewpoint.
@TomSrOfBoston
I did visit both and, like I said, definitely preferred Northeastern. Co-op seems wonderful, the people were more professional and mature, and Boston is wonderful.
I loved the professors at clark and academic opportunities, but the people seemed a bit too high-school esk, the admissions was somewhat disorganized and Worcester was too quiet.
Clark LEEP is offered to 10 of us, and gives basic room and board and a group of advisors, but not nearly as many extra opportunities as NEU scholars.
I was leaning towards NEU, but the response to this thread so far seems overwhelmingly towards Clark’s financial benefits.
The responders to this thread are not you. You need to carefully weigh this choice. While cost cannot be ignored it should not be your only criterion.
A lot depends on just exactly how “just barely” the ability to pay for NEU really is.
Your room and board scholarships at Clark are probably considered to be taxable income for you. So when you run your financial analyses, don’t forget to include that factor. Tuition, fees, books, required equipment, and required materials are Qualified Educational Expenses, so those scholarship moneys aren’t taxable.
OP, would you mind posting your stats? I’m interested in seeing how my daughter’s compare for the LEEP scholarship. Congratulations, and thanks!
All of these responses have been very helpful - thank y’all much! I still have around a month left to decide, so i’ll be weighing all the options very carefully. And i’ll PM @mjrube94
Also, while you’re aiming for MD/PhD, you can’t really count on getting in to a program like that.